Uh Oh! Office Romance
Office romance: It feels so right and wrong! With Americans spending over 50 hours a week in the office, no wonder people are hooking up at work. So many questions come up when you start to feel all a-flutter about your co-worker. Is this because of a power dynamic? Am I mixing up working well together with intimacy? Will I compromise my position/perception in the office? Will I compromise his? Should it be public? Office romances are fraught with many things, but SheKnows got down with Helaine Olen, co-author of the book Office Mate: The Employee Handbook for Finding and Managing Romance on the Job to talk about this very subject.
Margeax Baulch asks her all the right questions. Take it away MB:
SheKnows: Interoffice dating has received such a bad rap over the years. What are the advantages? Why do people do it?
Helaine Olen: Office dating replicates the old-fashioned courting rituals of 100 years ago. You get to know someone slowly over a period of time and it allows you to notice the subtle traits that indicate whether that person would make a good partner or not. Meeting someone at a bar, you are forced to rely on first impressions that aren’t always correct. You might reject someone because you don’t like their
Q: In the book, you refer to online dating as the romance equivalent of the Wild West. What did you mean by that?
A: People aren’t always honest online. At work, you can see what other people think of him and probably human resources did some screening as well. Also, if you are sifting through 200 profiles online, you are dealing with a lot of information up front. Just because you like jazz music and he likes rap doesn’t mean you’re incompatible.
Posted in Ask Sexcerpts, Dating, Romance
September 15th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
[...] women who have to positive or negative affect felt that their sexual selves play some sort of role in the business they [...]
September 16th, 2008 at 10:15 am
I believe that sex appeal can be used for and against your career. Sex appeal might get initial attention and therefor people will notice you and your work. But, then this attention can be seen as a cover up; because of your sexiness your work isn’t up to par. Also, people that resent you for your career advancements might be inclined to attribute your success to your sex appeal and thus a reputation of of lack of professionalism replaces your title of achievements.